Community

You are developing an application for business or some other purpose and want to choose iOS, which will be beneficial because the application should be based on attention to the elegant appearance of the interface and the focus on anticipated identity safety; the higher the target profit will be. The only question in your mind: “How much will it cost? Compactly, the cost of developing iOS apps can be relatively low, from a minimal viable product to a six-figure enterprise solution, depending on the functionality and connections to its design.

Below you’ll find clear cost tables, the exact factors that move the price, regional pricing, hidden costs, and a practical checklist to help you budget and choose an iOS app development company confidently.

First point of note- Define your MVP early; it minimizes early spending and allows you to test assumptions quicker.

Focus: budgeting should be linked towards the business goals (revenue, retention, and user growth) instead of just feature counts.

Speedy facts: mobile applications produced more than $935 billion in revenue in 2024, which is why developing a high-quality iOS app may be a worthwhile investment.

Average Cost to Develop an iPhone App

There’s no single number—but we can narrow it down. Use these tiers to place your project:

MVP / Small app

small features, single-platform polish: 10,000-40,000 (2-4 months).

Perfect to test business concepts and user opinions at the beginning.

Fits single-feature applications (e.g. a single-listing marketplace or appointment booking).

Medium App / Business App

High-quality, alike app/platform, full-fledged backend, payments, user profiles, logging into the app, web: $40 000120 000 (48 months).

Best suited to small-to-medium-sized businesses that need dependable UX and integrations (payments/analytics).

Includes basic security, reporting, and push notifications.

Enterprise App

custom backend, real-time, complex integrations, high security: $120k - 450k or more (8+ months).

Fintech, healthcare, logistics, or a large-scale consumer app when heavy backend, compliance, and scaling are required.

Usually encompasses multi-user control panels, analytics pipelines, and complex ML/real-time applications.

The actual per-platform cost of developing the iOS app would be equal to (estimated hours) multiplied by the (hourly rate of the team), with third-party payments, hosting, and maintenance fees added to this calculation.

Tip: Request that the vendors provide a phased implementation approach (Discovery step → MVP phase → v1 stage) that would ensure timely controls and measurement of impact.

What are the elements that make up the total invoice?

Discovery & planning

user research, MVP definition, wireframes.

It helps to establish scope and avoid scope creep; in many cases is 5 to 10 percent of the original cost.

Value: prioritized feature list, UX hypotheses and development timeline.

UI/UX design

Flows, screens, and animations (this will vary greatly depending on whether you want micro-interactions or not).

Excellent User Experience lowers customer churn and aids conversion, so invest sensibly.

Products: wireframes, prototypes, and optimized UI assets delivered to iOS.

iOS (Frontend)

Swift/Objective-C work on displays and device interfaces (GPS, camera, push notifications).

Native development offers the best performance and device support.

Consider the device testing matrix early to minimize surprises.

Backend and APIs

Custom server and database, and an administrative panel or backend as a service (BaaS) like Firebase.

Custom backends give options to have greater control of data, security, and integration.

BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service) lowers the rolled-out unit cost but may raise long-term vendor dependency.

Third-party integrations

Payment gateways, analytics, maps, and social login.

Each integration adds testing and compliance overhead; budget accordingly.

Watch for recurring fees (payment processors, map APIs).

QA & testing

Device testing, user acceptance, and performance testing.

Automated testing reduces the overall long-term QA cost but increases the initial cost.

Manual testing on different iOS and OS versions remains a must in terms of quality.

App Submission

App store account creation, compliance checks, and assets in the App store.

App review by Apple in the same App Store, utilizing Apple guidelines, is essential; rejections are time-consuming. Build polished metadata, screenshots, and privacy policies to work around friction.

Maintenance & Updates

Ongoing cost: plan for 15–25% of the initial development year. Security and compatibility patches are an absolute must in production apps.

Key stat: The App Store ecosystem has supported the billings and sales, and this has been in a large amount historically, which shows that there is a high monetization potential of iOS applications.

To control expenses, inquire about reusable materials, libraries, and any prior working experience in your market space.

Cost by App Complexity

App Complexity

Typical Development Time

Typical iOS App Development Cost

Small / MVP

2–4 months

$10,000 – $40,000

Medium / Business

4–8 months

$40,000 – $120,000

Complex/Enterprise

8+ months

$120,000 – $450,000+

Use the table you develop to create reasonable expectations before discussions with vendors. Have vendors plot each feature of your spec to a higher level so that you know where you will be.

How Much Do iPhone Apps Make?

Location is relevant to pricing because a US-based agency will cost more than an agency in India or Eastern Europe to perform the same deliverable. Use this to align budget vs risk.

Hourly Rates and Typical Project Ranges by Region

Region

Average hourly rate (typical)

Typical project range (mid complexity)

India / South Asia

$20–$40 / hr

$20,000 – $80,000

Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Poland)

$30–$100 / hr

$40,000 – $120,000

United States / Canada

$80–$170 / hr

$80,000 – $300,000

Australia

$80–$200 / hr

$100,000 – $300,000

Refer to a mixed model offshore development + local PM/QA to communicate and control.

Price per hour should not be the only selection criteria; instead, the portfolio, process, communique, and launch support are more important.

What is the production of an iOS app?

Feature breakdown—cost drivers (one-line impact estimates):

Login and profile—low incremental cost (foundation feature).

Frequently shared among applications; easy to develop and implement with good practices.

Payments & subscriptions—medium (security, PCI considerations).

Real-time chat/streaming—high (infrastructure + scale).

Needs strong backend architecture, scaling, and resilience planning.

Geolocation/mapping/route matching—medium-high (map APIs, optimization).

Offline mode & sync—medium (complexity in data syncing).

Adds UX complexity: conflict resolution, storage, and sync schedules.

Admin dashboard—medium (web backend + analytics).

A critical component in the operations process, treat it as a product rather than something of second thought.

Advanced analytics / ML inference—high (data pipelines, compute). Infer the trade-off between the costs and performance of server and on-device achievable.

Best practice: rank features on to effort ratio and build bit by bit.

To have cost predictability, ask vendors to provide a phased roadmap that includes measurable milestones.

Hidden Costs You Should Budget For

Such recurring expenses are often overlooked by many businesses—they are best planned at the beginning of the year to avoid any shock.

App Store developer account—$99/year.

Also include paid Apple services or enterprise certificates, in case needed.

Hosting & DB/storage—$500+/yr depending on scale. The costs of using the Cloud increase with active users and the record retention period.

Important for fast content delivery and improved UX globally.

Monitoring & maintenance: perhaps 4000-12000 dollars/year.

Includes security patches, bug fixes, and performance monitoring.

Compatibility work/OS Updates annually- budget $1000+/yr.

Sometimes, when we make major releases of iOS, it needs code adjustments and subsequent testing.

Concealed expenses equate to 15-25 percent of the initial year's spend and repeat every year. On evaluating a vendor, one will need to know what costs will come under maintenance and what will come as an extra expense.

iOS vs Android — why iOS can justify a higher upfront cost

Some of the evidence-based reasons why businesses prefer iOS first and what that means to cost recovery:

Less downloads to get to the same number of active users, the number of downloads to achieve the same number of active users is lower in the case of iOS users.

Increased ARPU (average revenue per user) balances an upfront iOS app development cost that is higher. Premium verticals where monetization is better on iOS include finance, travel, and premium retail.

More consolidation—There are fewer device variants, which eases testing and accelerates time-to-market.

Shorter testing period—Lesser QA expense as opposed to Android fragmentation.

Strong security and app store curation are more enticing to enterprise and monetary apps.

This obviates the possible high cost of a security audit should an app not be following Apple guidelines. Potential on the ARPU (increase, which helps cover development costs quicker on purpose-geared segments).

It is money-wise to go iOS-first when your clientele is those with a high Lifetime Value of using the app.

Think about your audience: when these users are mostly iPhone users (geography, income brackets), it is usually cheaper to do iOS first.

3 Questions to Answer Before You Estimate Cost

What is the single commitment action that users need to do in your app?

Reduce the application to a single essential measure—this informs functionality.

Which integrations are mandatory?

List hard dependencies vs nice-to-haves; mandatory integrations cost more.

Who will maintain the app post-launch?

Make it up front: the maintenance model has an influence on preliminary design and expenditures.

Responding to them minimizes estimation noise and provides agencies with a definite scope to bid. Also, formulate simple analytics objectives (DAU, retention targets) so that vendors can make KPI-based cost trade-offs.

How OrangeMantra Can Help?

As an iOS app development company with experience across enterprise and SMB apps, OrangeMantra offers:

Complete iOS software mobile application development solutions (discovery, design, native iOS app planning, production and QA, App store launch).

Specialized teams and a productized MVP to accelerate more quickly.

Fixed-scope MVP packages and maintenance retainer plans that manage the cost of iOS apps throughout their life cycle whilst safeguarding their quality.

Transparent invoices and milestone-based payments reduce financial risk.

Cross-functional teams (PM, iOS dev, backend, QA, designer) and established processes to expedite the delivery time to market.

Previous delivery data and metrics to prove our capability and reliability.

The next move: provide a 1-page business brief and orangemantra will outline cost implications along with timelines and a recommendation (MVP or full build out).

Final thoughts

With a clear scope, types of integrations needed, and the target market of the iOS app development, the estimation can be easy. What you can do next: create a 1-page brief on your main feature and 3 required integrations—we will get back with a definite cost estimate.

If you want, orangemantra can run a 2-week discovery sprint to convert your idea into an actionable roadmap and an accurate iOS app development services quote.